http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/07/us-virtual-goods-market-to-hit-2-9-billion-in-2012-with-facebook-games-maturing-mobile-booming/
http://www.business-and-management.org/download.php?file=2010/5_1--14-29-Hamari,Lehdonvirta.pdf
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Infographics on the popular game Papaya.
http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/24/papayamobile-reveals-growth-stats-for-mobile-games/
Friday, 6 January 2012
Team Fortress 2
Valves highly popular PC and Mac game Team Fortress 2 have used a trading system within there game to allow players who have purchased virtual assesories to exchange them with other players. What is intresting is that the game itself was released in 2007 the game is still bringing in profit from selling virtual goods. It began as a game in a pack called 'The Orange Box' with the other popular games Portal and Half life 2. It wasn't until 2008 it was re released as a stand alone package for windows avaible through steam. The game was later released as a Free to play in june 2011 game that relys only on Micro-transaction sales through steam for profits. They allow players to download the orginal core of the game while extras can be bought to enhance the look of the game and allow players to dress there character as they please to stand out.
There was a quick attachment to 'Hats' in the game with the core fan base taking over with ideas and buying 'hats' This soon led Valve into designing a trading system to allow players to swap the virtual items players have bought.They have even started a competition that allows players to design there own concepts to be part of the Team fortress world. They get jugded by both the games audience and players as well as the designers. The winning concepts get made and sold in the game with the player who designed the assessory getting half of the profits from the item sales.
There is also alot of news about how these 'hats' have become so popular players are willing to pay mass amount of money to get rarer items. A recent player bought a hat for $1500 outside of the game. This shows the willingness to spend on Virtual Items.
http://www.teamfortress.com/workshop/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_2
http://holdselect.com/2011/07/07/team-fortress-2-hat-sells-for-1500/
There was a quick attachment to 'Hats' in the game with the core fan base taking over with ideas and buying 'hats' This soon led Valve into designing a trading system to allow players to swap the virtual items players have bought.They have even started a competition that allows players to design there own concepts to be part of the Team fortress world. They get jugded by both the games audience and players as well as the designers. The winning concepts get made and sold in the game with the player who designed the assessory getting half of the profits from the item sales.
There is also alot of news about how these 'hats' have become so popular players are willing to pay mass amount of money to get rarer items. A recent player bought a hat for $1500 outside of the game. This shows the willingness to spend on Virtual Items.
http://www.teamfortress.com/workshop/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_2
http://holdselect.com/2011/07/07/team-fortress-2-hat-sells-for-1500/
Diablo 3 - Creating a new use for virtual goods.
A artical on PC gamer back in august 2011 has revealed that the up coming title Diablo 3 will have a in-game auction house that allows players to sell the in-game virtual goods for real world cash allowing players to buy with real money and sell to gain real money. This will change how virtual goods are seen in the eyes of gamers because before most virtual goods are techinally worth nothing not even if they have been bought because they are virtual.
Above is a image shown in the artical, what is shown is what the virtual in game auction house which to me feels like a gamer version of ebay with players able to search for the items they are after and bid money on what they want to increase there satisfcation of the gameplay or potentially make more money off the item later.
Blizzard have said they will take a small flat rate cut to any item put onto the list and again once its sold, meaning although the players will be interchanging money they will inturn gain of profits out of the system. They have said that they will not be taking a percentage cut.
“We talked about this as a service we wanted to provide players, and not primarily as a financial model… we don’t know if it will make us money. It would be nice if it did, but as long as we don’t lose money, that’s really what we care about: that we provide the players with a great experience that doesn’t put us out of business.”
They talk about how its benefital for both types of players, the ones that have the time to play the game, explore and collect great items and the ones that dont but want the items and are willing to pay to achieve the same outcome as the ones that dont. They also mention about how it will also be fair as players will have level limits to what they can buy to stop level 1 players buying the best items from the beggining. unauthorised Third partys used to sell virtual items for real money in the older games of diablo usually being players selling there items on websites.
They also have allowed for players that dont want to be appart of the action system with a second auction house that only works with in-game credits 'gold' to allow players that spend there time playing to collect the currency.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-will-let-players-buy-and-sell-items-for-real-money/
Above is a image shown in the artical, what is shown is what the virtual in game auction house which to me feels like a gamer version of ebay with players able to search for the items they are after and bid money on what they want to increase there satisfcation of the gameplay or potentially make more money off the item later.
Blizzard have said they will take a small flat rate cut to any item put onto the list and again once its sold, meaning although the players will be interchanging money they will inturn gain of profits out of the system. They have said that they will not be taking a percentage cut.
“We talked about this as a service we wanted to provide players, and not primarily as a financial model… we don’t know if it will make us money. It would be nice if it did, but as long as we don’t lose money, that’s really what we care about: that we provide the players with a great experience that doesn’t put us out of business.”
They talk about how its benefital for both types of players, the ones that have the time to play the game, explore and collect great items and the ones that dont but want the items and are willing to pay to achieve the same outcome as the ones that dont. They also mention about how it will also be fair as players will have level limits to what they can buy to stop level 1 players buying the best items from the beggining. unauthorised Third partys used to sell virtual items for real money in the older games of diablo usually being players selling there items on websites.
They also have allowed for players that dont want to be appart of the action system with a second auction house that only works with in-game credits 'gold' to allow players that spend there time playing to collect the currency.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-will-let-players-buy-and-sell-items-for-real-money/
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Western Virtual Goods
I have found an study on digra written by Miho Nojima that talks about the 'Pricing models and Motivations for MMO play' although the study looks on how mustly the pricing models and the relationships between play time and immersion rates, it does talk about how 'per-item' (purchasing virtual goods) billing rose in the western market. According to this the total titles in sep 2005 with 'Per-Item' billing was 32.2% of the market that rose in the following year 2006 to 59.6% which even beat the total of monthly fixed fee games in that year. The adoption of In game item selling took over monthly fee games in a year showing how strong and noticably popular the concept was.
Reading further into the study i like how there is a relationship with the player type to who might be more interested in 'per-item' sales or paying a monthly fee. The study brings together areas like Richard Bartles thoughts on player types and how a different player type has different relationships with different mediums of sales.
"...people who are motivated by social aspect of
the game may continue the game instead of low immersion
to keep in touch with game friends. Relationship structure
of motivation and purchasing behavior, including payment
amount, willingness to pay and play period..." - Miho Nojima
This related firmly to the likes of freemuim models as they are usually highly repetitive but draw in large social groups, thus although the same itself may become boring the gamer might be more of a 'social' player and continue to play and purchase in game items and the cost of small sums of money. I also feel that after playing games you find that games tend to sell the virtual items that relate more to the player type, 'killers' may perfer weapon or game enchaning based item. Games like 'Gun bros' sell weapons, and player asserorys as the game is based on killing as well as multiplayer creating two player types and giving both types items in which to spend money on.
"human’s reaction to novelty has a
reverse U shape. Users perceive high degree of novelty in
the beginning of the usage, and then novelty decreases
along with time." - Wathieu, L (2004), “Consumer Habituation,”
Management Science, Vol.50, No.5, pp.587-596.
This ties into my thoughts of low priced goods realating to time used. Players that can buy accessorys will have a time were the players novility might run out, i have experienced this feeling, but for the low cost of the item the player may feel more inclided to purchase another at a small price as they havent payed for the game.
http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.40164.pdf - Miho Nojima.
http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.40164.pdf - Richard Bartle.
Reading further into the study i like how there is a relationship with the player type to who might be more interested in 'per-item' sales or paying a monthly fee. The study brings together areas like Richard Bartles thoughts on player types and how a different player type has different relationships with different mediums of sales.
"...people who are motivated by social aspect of
the game may continue the game instead of low immersion
to keep in touch with game friends. Relationship structure
of motivation and purchasing behavior, including payment
amount, willingness to pay and play period..." - Miho Nojima
This related firmly to the likes of freemuim models as they are usually highly repetitive but draw in large social groups, thus although the same itself may become boring the gamer might be more of a 'social' player and continue to play and purchase in game items and the cost of small sums of money. I also feel that after playing games you find that games tend to sell the virtual items that relate more to the player type, 'killers' may perfer weapon or game enchaning based item. Games like 'Gun bros' sell weapons, and player asserorys as the game is based on killing as well as multiplayer creating two player types and giving both types items in which to spend money on.
"human’s reaction to novelty has a
reverse U shape. Users perceive high degree of novelty in
the beginning of the usage, and then novelty decreases
along with time." - Wathieu, L (2004), “Consumer Habituation,”
Management Science, Vol.50, No.5, pp.587-596.
This ties into my thoughts of low priced goods realating to time used. Players that can buy accessorys will have a time were the players novility might run out, i have experienced this feeling, but for the low cost of the item the player may feel more inclided to purchase another at a small price as they havent payed for the game.
http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.40164.pdf - Miho Nojima.
http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.40164.pdf - Richard Bartle.
Virtual Goods
Because i have been looking into 'Micro-transactions' as a main topic i forgot that 'virtual goods' is a large part of the transfer. Players are spending millions yearly on virtual goods by why and how much virtual goods are being sold?
I have come across a website called Virtual Economy Research Network which discusses the nature and potential in Virtual Goods. Although the artical was written back in 2007 it has some interesting information that allows us to help maybe see the change in virtual sales. According to them as an estimate $2,090 million is what the worldly spenditure on virtual items will be at the end of 2007.
http://virtual-economy.org/2007/03/02/how_big_is_the_rmt_market_anyw/
I have come across a website called Virtual Economy Research Network which discusses the nature and potential in Virtual Goods. Although the artical was written back in 2007 it has some interesting information that allows us to help maybe see the change in virtual sales. According to them as an estimate $2,090 million is what the worldly spenditure on virtual items will be at the end of 2007.
http://virtual-economy.org/2007/03/02/how_big_is_the_rmt_market_anyw/
Sales
A surprizing find with 'micro-transactions' is that they do increadabley well during holiday and sale periods with company lowing the costs a little more for a short time. I have come across one article that shows the drematic increase of 'microtransaction' sales in the company 'Nixon' games. There game "Combat Arms revenues jumped 181 percent in 2010 during the Thanksgiving weekend. Sold more than 1,500 virtual Valkyrie Assault Rifles on Black Friday 2010" They also managed to out do this with "MapleStory sales increased 240 percent on Black Friday in 2010 -- Sold nearly 80,000 "Miracle Cubes" on Black Friday 2010"
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nexons-online-games-holiday-microtransaction-sales-strategy-same-as-brick-and-mortar-retailers-2011-11-18
Free-to-play and other games can also use the same sales approch as other stores but the only difference is that they only see virtual in game goods. According to the artical 2011 would of had 30% price drop in 'Combat Arms' in its permanent weapons selection as well as new character to buy for a speical low price. Even themed events and black friday sales will effect prices on item packages. Allowing players to get more for there money during a short period of time.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nexons-online-games-holiday-microtransaction-sales-strategy-same-as-brick-and-mortar-retailers-2011-11-18
Free-to-play and other games can also use the same sales approch as other stores but the only difference is that they only see virtual in game goods. According to the artical 2011 would of had 30% price drop in 'Combat Arms' in its permanent weapons selection as well as new character to buy for a speical low price. Even themed events and black friday sales will effect prices on item packages. Allowing players to get more for there money during a short period of time.
Micro-Transaction Platforms and Consoles
There are a couple different platforms and consoles that support the sales of microtransaction games. Alot have been set up due to the massive rise in Micro-transaction gaming and Free-to-play games. Large companys like EA have even created they own sites in which players can play free games but use one currency to spend in all the games.
Here is a list of cosoles and platforms that are currently a major part of the micro-transaction gaming world and some relevent information about them;
Steam
Created by Vavle Corpiration and release in 2003 Steam allows users to pay to download games from online. Usually these games fall into the micro-transaction boundry with games under $5 but some are alot higher. Also games sold on the Steam network can also use in game virtal items that can be purchased through the use of 'micro-transactions'
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/ov_micro.php
Screenshot taken from Steamworks site that shows companys if they wish to use 'micro-transactions' they can.
http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/14/valves-steam-online-store-launches-micro-transaction-games/
Here is a list of cosoles and platforms that are currently a major part of the micro-transaction gaming world and some relevent information about them;
Steam
Created by Vavle Corpiration and release in 2003 Steam allows users to pay to download games from online. Usually these games fall into the micro-transaction boundry with games under $5 but some are alot higher. Also games sold on the Steam network can also use in game virtal items that can be purchased through the use of 'micro-transactions'
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/ov_micro.php
Screenshot taken from Steamworks site that shows companys if they wish to use 'micro-transactions' they can.
http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/14/valves-steam-online-store-launches-micro-transaction-games/
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